Abstract:

Water is an essential commodity in our day today life. So the purity of water is an important factor for human health. There are usually a number of pollutants in water that need to be dealt with and consequently there are various water treatment steps that need to be taken to remove these pollutants, like sedimentation and filtration. Most of these solids does not get removed, so in order to accomplish this, coagulation and flocculation has to be implemented. Synthetic coagulants are used to treat water which has negative impacts on health. The treatment system should have the smallest possible environmental impact; therefore, the use of systems and natural treatment techniques, involving a natural coagulant, is an important alternative. Since natural coagulants do not consume alkalinity unlike alum, pH adjustments can be omitted and this provides extra cost savings. Natural coagulants are also non-corrosive which eliminate the concerns of pipe erosion. The advantages of using natural plant-based coagulants for water treatment is that, they are cheaper to purchase, they do not produce treated water with extreme pH and they are highly biodegradable. Water melon seed has high protein content and is considered that the active coagulant agents in plant extract are proteins. This study investigates the possibility of using spitted water melon seeds as natural coagulant for purification of turbid water and the use of extracted oil in skin care.


Keywords: Natural coagulant, Water melon seeds, Synthetic coagulant, Waste water treatment.